Kamloops Airport hits record numbers in 2015

By Jennifer Stahn

Image Credit: Shutterstock

January 13, 2016 - 1:00 PM

KAMLOOPS - After a slow start to 2015 a record number of travellers still came through the gates at Fulton Field.

The Kamloops Airport is reporting more than 32,000 travellers through the gates in December, for a total of 324,000 travellers in 2015. In 2014, more than 313,000 travellers used the local airport, which at the time beat the record numbers from the year before.

Airport managing director Fred Legace says the eight per cent jump in traveller numbers in December, and 3.4 per cent jump over the year before, is in part due to the lower Canadian dollar, which has helped tourism travel continue to be strong.

Legace notes there have been increases in both domestic travel and U.S. origin travel and all routes to and from Kamloops are performing well.

Aircraft movement numbers were down in December, but up overall for the year. Poor weather is being blamed from a 30 per cent falloff in the number of Visual Flight Rules flights in December, though those flights were up six per cent year over year.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

OPINION Editor, This is a busy time of year, but I find it’s also a time of reflection, particularly as January marks the end of my two-year term as Chair and my 10 years serving on the Board of Interior